Day 13 Selsey and the Witterings to home

We've had a wonderful trip but now find ourselves a day ahead on schedule and thinking of home. Nick whisked off to Greece with his sisters before the end of his dance term and then had barely a 24 hour turn around before coming away with me. I've been attempting to keep up with emails whilst away but have an overflowing inbox that needs dealing with, preferably before I head off to Berlin first thing on Friday. So, we decided to pack up, spend a full day exploring and head home up the A3 late evening, only an hour's drive away. 

The tent was almost dry, just a bit damp around the bottom from the long grass so we were happy that we wouldn't have a big job ahead of us when we got home. We've only got a small garden so no room to pitch a tent to dry, meaning wet kit gets draped over the sofas if we have a wet strike!

We took our time packing up in the warm sunshine aiming to get to Selsey around 12.00 to meet Liz, another guiding friend. We'd been warned about traffic queues but in fact had little problem on the roads, arriving spot on time. We had a lovely walk around the headland, stopping for crab salads for lunch in the Lifeboat pub - and lots of chatter about guiding, of course!

The two of us pressed onto Bracklesham Bay - an ice cream and photo on the beach and then onto East and West Wittering. By late afternoon, the tide was in and the skies looked threatening, topped off by high car parking charges we decided to not to explore the obviously very popular beaches - we'll leave them for another time.

Itchenor is a very pretty village and quayside. We enjoyed watching people crabbing for a while and then drove round to Bisham Hoe on the other side of the bay. On all our journeys we've talked about guiding and wondered where local units meet - I wonder if girls meet in these small village or have to travel much further afield? In London there would be no shortage of girls within say a 15 minute walk of a Brownie unit but it must be a very different matter in the rural areas of the Region.

Looking at the map I decided that our very last stop along the coastline of LaSER would be Thorney Island - there felt to be a completeness finishing with an island having started with one too at the Isle of Sheppey. Unfortunately, as we drove out towards the actual island part of the peninsula we came upon the RAF base and were told that we could drive no further. We were welcome to walk around the island but that will have to be another trip too, no time today.

Our very last stop was on the quayside in Emsworth (just over the border into Hampshire) where we enjoyed fish and chips in the evening sunshine watching the seabirds and fountain spouting cockles in the mud whilst looking over at Thorney Island in West Sussex!

Selsey with Liz

Emsworth (Hants!) looking over to Thorney Island, West Sussex